


the wingbeats carry on

by Queen_of_Moons67



Category: Akatsuki no Yona | Yona of the Dawn
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Don't copy to another site, Family, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Friendship, Gen, HakYona Week 2019, Pre-HakYona, dragons as dragons au, for chapter four anyway, more tags to be added as chapters are
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-14
Updated: 2019-10-07
Packaged: 2019-10-10 09:17:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 5,298
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17423120
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Queen_of_Moons67/pseuds/Queen_of_Moons67
Summary: When all the dragons are turned into actual dragons, Hak and Yoon have to figure out how to turn them back.SPOILERS for anything after the anime, including the OVAs.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This fic branched off of a post I made on Tumblr a few months ago. You don't need to read it, but it can be found here if you're interested: https://queenofmoons67.tumblr.com/post/180205923212/the-dragons-as-actual-dragons
> 
> There is also art for this AU! (Thank you akatsuki-no-octopus!): https://queenofmoons67.tumblr.com/post/180355700137/zeno-wants-to-eat-yoons-cooking-too-zeno-eats
> 
> Credit to Nickelback for the original lyrics “just like a heartbeat / the drumbeat carries on.”
> 
> I do not own "Akatsuki no Yona".

There wasn’t any warning when it happened. One second Hak was talking to Yona, the next he was staring down at a ruby-colored dragon only four times the size of Ao.

Hak blinked several times, and when the dragon didn’t disappear, he asked incredulously, “Yona-hime?”

The dragon chirped and blinked large, purple eyes back at him. When he did nothing but keep staring, the dragon flapped her wings once, twice, and launched herself into Hak’s arms. Before he knew it, itty bitty horns on the crest of her head butted his chin— _hard_. Hak stumbled backwards, groaning, but somehow managed to keep a hold on the dragon. A long, slimy tongue snuck out of her mouth and bathed his chin where she had accidentally hit him.

Hak made a face, but she only did it once so he didn’t say anything but, “You are definitely Yona-hime.”

She chirped again, and Hak sighed.

* * *

That wasn’t the end of it. Hak returned to camp, the dragon who was Yona in his arms, to find Yoon staring at four other dragons. _Four._ A huge golden dragon the size of a small hill, Zeno’s pendant hanging off of one horn, crouched as far to the edge of the forest clearing as he possibly could to make room for the others. Though, granted, most of that room was needed by the bear-sized emerald dragon currently prancing in circles, long legs striking the hard earth and his head held high as he took deep breaths, nostrils flaring.

Leaping around the emerald was a white dragon the size of a small mountain lion. His tail lashed the air in excitement, and the only times he stopped moving were to carefully skirt around a sky colored dragon only as big as a half-grown wolf pup. Ao sat calmly in-between the blue dragon’s horns, holding onto one with one hand while the other held the acorn she was eating.

Yona arched her neck so her own head rubbed the underside of his chin, while her tail wrapped around one arm to squeeze it tightly.

“Pushy princess,” he muttered, but stepped forward all the same. “The four idiots, I presume?”

Yoon whirled around, his entire body relaxing as he cried, “Hak, you’re back! Thank goodness, you won’t believe—” The sight of Yona, very much a dragon herself, made Yoon gape. “You have got to be kidding me.”

Hak shrugged and, when Yona started to wiggle, set her down. Watching her bound over to sniff at Shin-ah, he said, “Unfortunately not. Thankfully we were just talking when it happened.”

Yoon nodded slowly, but the Genius Pretty Boy didn’t have the best temper. Hak counted to three and then watched as Yoon spun back around, hands on his hips and Mom Glare in his eyes.

“Kija, what did your grandmother do _this_ time?” he asked exasperatedly, staring down at the white dragon. Kija—who had finally stopped bouncing around in favor of investigating Dragon Yona—looked back up at him with what Hak could only call a sheepish expression. Yoon sighed. “I know it’s not your fault, Kija, but just—” He waved his arms at the five dragons. “—Look at all of you! What are we going to do now? We’re supposed to meet Lili to discuss the events in Xing next week.”

Zeno turned his head and snorted at them, the wind the action created blowing through their camp in a flurry. Hak braced himself with his legs and turned his shoulder into it, steadying Yoon when the boy stumbled into him. Jae-ha, as big as he was, didn’t have an issue. The other dragons weren’t so lucky.

The wind caught under Kija’s wings and sent the white dragon stumbling, while Shin-ah and Yona—and Ao—were so tiny they blew straight up into the air. Zeno coughed as he held back another snort, this time in alarm, and swung his tail around so that Shin-ah landed on it, legs splayed out and thankfully not impaled on one of the tail spikes. Ao had managed to hold onto the blue dragon, so she was also fine. And Yona was—

Hak stumbled back as Yoon fell into him, and the three of them—Hak, Yoon, and Yona the tiny red cannon ball who had glided right into them—ended up on the ground in a mix of groaning limbs. When they righted themselves, it was to find the other four dragons and Ao staring down at them, Zeno and Kija with their eyes wide, Jae-ha visibly trembling as he held back laughter, and Shin-ah and Ao with their heads cocked to the side in curiosity.

Hak stared at them, then at Yona as the smallest dragon hopped over to stand between Jae-ha’s front legs. Yoon scrambled up to check that her and Shin-ah hadn’t been injured.

“Five dragons, a squirrel, a mother, and me,” Hak muttered. Kija chirped at him, slightly deeper but mostly the same sound the princess had made earlier. “Well! Yoon, if you get started on dinner, the dragons and I will put the camp back together again.” There was no point in worrying about how things would work out. If it was like the other spells they had been cursed with, it would fade within the week.

* * *

It didn’t fade within the week.


	2. Hunting

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aaaaaah I am so sorry it's taken me so long to update! I hope the length makes up for it and that you all enjoy!

When the sun rose on the seventh day, Zeno woke up to find himself and the rest of the dragons exactly as they had been the last six mornings: Zeno’s own body encircled their camp, his long neck stretching alongside his tail; Jae-ha, also too big to fit inside a tent, had claimed the spot next to the fire; the other dragons refused to leave the older dragons outside alone, and so they had split between them, Yona tucked in-between Jae-ha’s shoulder blades and Kija barricading Shin-ah between his own stomach and Zeno’s.

The feeling of their scales scraping against his own as they breathed tickled a little, but he had grown used to it and, as he had proudly told them the other day, quite fond of it. Shin-ah had disappeared under his old furs and Kija had blushed red enough he rivaled Yona in color, but they had both returned to his side that night.

Suddenly, there was pressure on his tail, and Zeno opened one eye to find himself staring at Hak. The Thunder Beast froze and stared back at him, then waved his glaive in greeting. Zeno blinked back. Hak finished climbing over his tail and headed into the surrounding forest, quiver full of arrows bouncing on his back, so Zeno closed his eyes to meditate.

Hak wouldn’t be back for a while. With five dragons to feed, breakfast had become a bigger ordeal than usual. Zeno himself would go hunting later on—as big a dragon as he was, he had adjusted his eating habits to gorging on the surrounding animal population about once every two days, and relying on Yoon’s cooking for snacks. Jae-ha did something similar, though he did it once a day. But the others were too small to go hunting on their own, and so Hak had taken the task upon himself—one deer for Kija, and two to go in Yoon’s pot to share between him, Hak, Shin-ah, and Yona. Or, at least, the equivalent meat-wise, because if he killed three deer a day they would quickly go through the surrounding herds.

“Zeno,” a voice chirped.

Zeno purred—one of the only noises, he had discovered, that he could make without serious consequences for those around him—but kept his eyes closed.

“Zeeeeno.” A pause. “Zeno, I know you’re awake. Where did Hak go?”

Zeno opened his eyes to stare at Yona. “If you think you’re going after the mister on your own, little miss—”

“Please, Zeno?” She looked up at him with wide eyes, and he froze. Yona’s eyes had been an effective weapon before she turned into a teeny tiny dragon, but that power had at least tripled after her transformation.

Zeno closed his eyes and murmured, “The mister has gone hunting.”

“Thank you, Zeno!” She pressed her body up against his muzzle in a pseudo-hug, then bounded up and over his tail.

Zeno kept his eyes closed. Despite the fact that only the dragons themselves could understand each other, he just knew he was going to get in trouble with Yoon and Hak anyway. He just hoped Yona didn’t run into any trouble on her way to the Thunder Beast.

* * *

Yona trotted through the underbrush of the forest, half her attention on how brilliantly the dew shone in the morning sun, and the other half on walking. Coordinating her limbs had been the biggest thing to adjust to—she had to walk on four legs instead of two, while also keeping her wings tightly folded so she wouldn’t glide out of control.

Hak had made fun of her at first, cooing at her and saying ‘look, Yoon, Yona’s taking her first steps!’ as she first stumbled towards him. He had changed his tune when she pointedly veered towards Yoon instead, though.

But she had gotten better at it, and thankfully so had the others—though more than one tree had been sacrificed to a falling Zeno. Unfortunately, the two things she hadn’t done now that she was an actual dragon were breathe fire or fly. Yoon had sighed in relief when it was revealed that only the three oldest dragons could do those, but to her those were the only point of being a dragon. Though, granted, she could make smoke, so she could only assume that if she was stuck like this for a while, her body would eventually develop fire.

And the sharp teeth were a nice bonus.

The sound of a branch cracking drew her attention, and she looked over expecting to see Hak. Instead, she found herself making eye contact with a man about Jae-ha’s age.

His grip on his axe loosened as his eyes went wide, but not for long as he visibly shook himself and tightened his hold. Bringing the axe up into a swinging position, he called, “Hey, Pa! Come see what I found!”

Yona bristled and hissed. She wasn’t a ‘what’.

The man eyed her, but didn’t back up. In fact, as an older, balding man approached them, the first man took a step closer.

“It’s a dragon, Pa! Imagine what we can sell it for!”

Baldy grunted and cocked his head in interest. “Only a baby, too.”

Yona hissed again and added a snort for good measure. Unlike Zeno, hers wasn’t big enough to create wind, but it did send smoke curling out from her nostrils.

“You take the left, I’ll take the right,” Baldy said, moving as he talked. “And watch those teeth. She might be a baby, but those look sharp—”

Yona didn’t give him the chance to take another step. With the two of them now separated, she flared her wings out and charged. As she had hoped, the wind lifted her up into a fast glide and, remembering how she had accidentally taken down Yoon and Hak when she had first transformed, Yona bowed her head down.

Her horns collided with Baldy’s stomach, and his breath whooshed out of him in one long, satisfying noise as he crumpled to the ground and his son shouted out behind them. Making a note of how well that had worked, Yona hopped off and spun to face the son—or at least, she tried to.

As she moved, the wind that had helped her before pushed into her from the side and pressed that wing in until it folded. Off balance and still somewhat unused to four legs, she stumbled over one of her own feet and fell to the ground, other wing still awkwardly out and muzzle snuffling in the dirt.

Shaking her head and snorting, Yona caught the son moving in closer with the axe out of the corner of her eye and quickly folded her second wing in. Something told her it was a weak point, useful when in the air but to be protected on the ground.

“Come on, little dragon,” Baldy cooed, and she backed up until her tail tip brushed a tree, eyes wide to take in both of the hunters at once. The father had managed to stand. Now he approached from one side and his son from the other, but unlike last time, they were close enough to cover each other.

“Come on, little dragon,” the son echoed, a sneer on his lips and his attitude changed after her successful attack, however brief it had been.

Yona’s wings ached with the desire to take to the wind. But she wasn’t big enough to fly, there was no opening for her to glide past them, and while she imagined the head butt would work well eventually, her previous attack had shown her its downsides. She did the next best thing instead. Opening her mouth, she called for help in a series of chirps and barks.

* * *

Hak had been enjoying a nice, peaceful morning of hunting when a high-pitched noise startled the deer herd he had his eyes on. He cursed and made to follow them, but then the noise just kept on going. Hak paused to listen more closely. Was it just him, or did that noise sound familiar? With no crunching leaves or thundering herd in the way, the next noise came through clearly as a chirp.

Hak cursed again and broke into a run. One of the dragons was in trouble.

* * *

Baldy took a step forward, saying, “We should hurry. We don’t want to be here when help arrives.”

Yona faked a lunge at him, lips pulled back in a snarl, and he jolted back.

“How much do you think we could sell those teeth for?” the son laughed, too focused on her to pay attention to any warnings. “We could easily sell her without—”

A familiar leg swept the son’s legs out from under him, and when he fell to the ground with a shout, Yona charged Baldy. Back up had arrived.

* * *

After Hak took out the younger of the two men attacking Yona, he stood back in bemusement and just watched. The older man, rather than facing Yona head on, looked between Hak’s glaive and the dragon’s bared teeth, grabbed the other man’s arm, and ran away. That was it.

“That was the easiest fight ever,” he remarked. A flash of red caught his eye, and he looked down to see Yona still charging after the men. Hak yelped and hurried forward, blocking her way with the glaive and then sweeping her into his arms. “Woah, where do you think you’re going! They’re gone, you scared them off!”

Yona chirped at him, a distinct note of annoyance in her voice, and wriggled her body around. Thankfully she didn’t try to use her claws or fangs, though, so Hak simply tightened his arms.

“Let’s check on the others, ok? We’ll need to move quickly, so that if they come back we’re long gone.” Yona froze and peered up at him, purple eyes wide. “Maybe Zeno will let us ride him… he’ll draw attention, but there’s not really anything we can do about that.”

The dragon huffed smoke, but Hak felt every muscle in her body relax as she decided to stay. He grinned and started walking back towards the camp.

* * *

Zeno was the first to spot them returning, and his head shot up to stare at them. “Yoon! They’re back!”

Three other dragon heads immediately shot up, a green-white-blue trio. Yoon turned more slowly, not able to understand Zeno’s growl but interested in what the dragons saw.

“Hak!” he called, the relief clear in his voice. “And you have Yona!”

Hak, unable to acknowledge him with his arms full of dragon, opted to pick up speed instead, and Yona held back a yelp as she began to bounce. Reflexively, she dug her claws into his cloak and wrapped her tail around his shoulder to steady herself.

“Hey!” Hak shouted back. “Start to pack—!” He jolted to a stop next to Zeno’s tail instead of climbing over it. “—up?”

Yona twisted her long neck around to see what he was looking at, and joined him in staring at what had been their camp, utterly perplexed. The tent had been taken down and the fire stamped out, while the cooking supplies had been bundled up into packs. In short, there was no packing up to do because it had already been done.

“We all heard Yona’s call,” Yoon explained. “Shin-ah managed to reassure us that she was fine, but I didn’t know what had happened, so I figured it was best to be prepared.”

“Yona almost got dragon-napped, so we should leave,” Hak agreed. He bent to put her down, then paused and met her eyes.

She gazed back as innocently as she could, making them go wide as she cocked her head to the side. She wasn’t about to race after her kidnappers again, so she definitely deserved to be able to stand on her own. Definitely. No chance of her going off on her own again. … Probably. She wouldn’t mind being able to take an actual bite out of them. But still! Come on, Hak, let—

Hak straightened up again and tightened his grip. “If you think I’m going to believe that look, Princess, you obviously think I’ve forgotten about how every time I leave you on your own, you manage to find trouble. Oh no. You’re stuck with me for at least the rest of the day.”

Yona huffed a puff of smoke in his face and rested her head on his shoulder, pointedly ignoring Jae-ha’s sniggers. Poor Hak. Worrying like that couldn’t be good for his health.

* * *

They hiked towards the Water Tribe through the rest of the day, only stopping when the moon came out. While the dragons could now all see well in the dark, their eyes peering out of it like dual stars, Hak and Yoon couldn’t. They had reached a good stopping spot, anyway—Suiko shouldn’t take them longer than another day or two to reach.

Zeno padded in a circle, his huge feet stamping the grass down into a soft pad.

Yona giggled, “You’re like a dog, Zeno!”

He snorted smoke in her face—and Hak’s, as he had yet to let her down—and simply lay down, nose to tail.

Hak waved the smoke away and coughed, “Really, Zeno?” This time, the Yellow Dragon simply blew air carefully in the Dark Dragon’s face, knowing that Hak couldn’t understand them in their current forms.

Not that Jae-ha cared. Easily hopping over Zeno’s tail, he flopped down, back to Zeno’s side, and heaved a full-bodied sigh. Kija chirped and followed as fast as he could, wings flapping furiously. In his excitement, though, his legs tangled with Jae-ha’s. The White Dragon fell with a thump.

“Idiots,” Yoon snorted, and scrambled after them, feet placed carefully.

Yona peered backwards over Hak’s arms at the one remaining dragon not in Zeno’s nest.

“Do you want to join them?” she asked.

Shin-ah blinked up at her.

“What are you two— oh,” Hak said. His arms tightened around her as Shin-ah flapped his wings, first slowly, then faster, to try and fly over Zeno’s tail. “Shin-ah, you know you and Yona can’t fly.”

The Blue Dragon let out a low trill, echoed by the squirrel sitting between his horns, as he landed on the ground. Yona trilled back, and Hak sighed.

“Fine.” He bent down, sending all the blood rushing to her head, and when Yona reoriented herself, she had been tucked under one arm, with Shin-ah next to her on Hak’s other arm. They blinked at each other. Yona could see her eyes reflected in Shin-ah’s, both of them wide in shock. Hak, oblivious, moved carefully up and over Zeno’s tail.

The Yellow Dragon churred at them, the worry clear in his voice, and Yona knew that if Hak was able to, he would have patted Zeno’s scales. As it was, he was a little busy carrying two dragons and a squirrel.

“We’re good, Zeno,” he grunted.

At his words, Yoon looked up, yelped, and tried to stand. He only managed to grunt and fall back down, trapped as he was in the mix of Jae-ha and Kija’s legs.

Hak sniggered. “Don’t worry, Mother, we’re coming to you. No need to get up.”

Yoon bristled at the title, but as Hak slid down the other side of Zeno’s tail with both Yona and Shin-ah in his grasp, Yoon reached out to brace them the best he could when they hit the ground.

Yona licked his cheek as a thank you, then gave a full body wriggle. Understanding her meaning perfectly, Hak leaned down, set both her and Shin-ah on their feet, and then sat down next to Yoon, back to Jae-ha’s stomach and legs draped over Kija.

The White Dragon side-eyed his legs and huffed at him, but Hak just smirked.

“I’m not movin— Yona!” he yelped, breath leaving him in a whoosh as she jumped on his stomach. Jae-ha cackled and Kija smirked back at Hak the best he could, head tilted up so he could stare him down.

“Oh, stop it,” Yoon sighed. He stared at them all through half-lidded eyes.

Shin-ah chirped softly at him, circling once before lying on top of all of them, Ao perched on his shoulders.

“Exactly,” Yoon nodded, and his entire body visibly relaxed. “I guess we can forgo a proper camp tonight… but just this once…”

Zeno churred and stretched one of his wings out over them, shifting his head under it, too.

Yona looked around at all of them—at her family, happy and sleepy and warm together—and closed her eyes. She could hear rustling as everyone settled down, and the entire pile moved steadily with Zeno’s breathing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you all enjoyed, and please comment!
> 
> Also thank you to jtj14 for the idea of a dragon cuddle pile! I hope it was everything you hoped for.
> 
> Gentle reminder you can find me on tumblr at queenofmoons67, and I am accepting prompts!


	3. Hoards

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> ever since the dragons of the group became… well… actual dragons, Yoon has noticed a few more peculiarities than normal. with all the books he’s read, though, it isn’t hard to figure out they’ve all gained the instinct to hoard.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is definitely different from the first two style-wise, because it's actually closer in style to my original tumblr post. But I figured I'd post it here anyway as a kind of extra chapter (there's another one coming, too, that fills a request in bullet points, so /coughs/). ANYWAY. This is different, but I hope you all enjoy, and I do not own "Akatsuki no Yona".

ever since the dragons of the group became… well… actual dragons, Yoon has noticed a few more peculiarities than normal. with all the books he’s read, though, it isn’t hard to figure out they’ve all gained the instinct to hoard.

Yona, despite having two, is easy to figure out because her hoards are the most cliche. she’ll pounce on anything when the sun hits it just right, tail waving slowly back and forth behind her—morning dew and Yoon’s pots, Jae-ha’s knives and Shin-ah’s sword and her own arrowheads, Hak’s necklace. but mostly, her hoard consists of her family. there’s a reason she’s always getting underfoot.

Shin-ah’s hoard is… a bit more troublesome. mostly because it seems like sometimes, _everything_ is Shin-ah’s hoard. specifically, though, it’s sleeping spaces—Zeno’s head, Jae-ha’s and Hak’s shoulders, Yoon’s lap; the clothes the dragons no longer fit into, the tent, the best spot next to the fire and any grassy area lit by moonlight.

Kija’s hoard, compared to the youngest dragons, is relatively straight-forward: dragon scales. while they’re nearly impossible to pry off the dragons, they do fall off every now and then in what Yoon can only associate with birds molting. they leave fresh, healthy hardened scales in their place, so it’s not like there’s anything to worry about. beyond some itchy dragons, anyway—Jae-ha once knocked over a tree by accident. the molting leaves Kija old, dulling scales that he collects in a leather bag and hauls around, occasionally sniffing at and rubbing his own scent all over them.

Jae-ha also has a rather simple hoard in leaf piles. they’re easy to gather wherever they camp for the night, and, with his hard scales protecting him from any scratchiness the leaves might have given them, Jae-ha takes to sleeping in the piles. at the same time, they’re just as easy to scatter when they leave. they don’t tie the dragon down, Yoon thinks, and that might just be the crux and attractiveness of it. and yet… while Jae-ha sleeps in the leaf piles, the other dragons sleep around and on him, and Yoon can’t help but hope that like Yona, Jae-ha’s hoard is also his family. no matter where they travel, they aren’t burdens tying him down.

Zeno’s hoard took Yoon awhile to figure out, because the dragon doesn’t treat anything differently. in the end, though, that’s what gives it away: Zeno’s hoard wrapped around his horn, its gold glint standing out even against Zeno’s own golden scales. the necklace is tiny all the same, though, and it’s hard to miss a hill-sized dragon reaching up on occasion to check it hasn’t fallen off.


	4. Kiss

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When Hak wakes up to find that Yona can’t sleep, there’s only one thing to do: Sit with her till the sun rises.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! I posted this for HakYona week awhile ago, and I'm finally crossposting it here! I consider it an omake, just because it doesn't really take place at any particular time after the dragons are transformed. (Also, I maybe cheated a little with the whole ‘kiss’ prompt…)  
> (Ok, I cheated a lot. Technically there’s no kiss at all.)

It was a quiet night in camp. The fire crackled low, down to just the embers, but the full moon above them lit up the clearing enough for Hak to make out the tiny red dragon sitting against a tree at the edge.

For a moment, Hak laid there and stared up at the moon. He didn’t know what was going through Yona’s head right now, but even after all their years together, she somehow always managed to surprise him, and he was always left scrambling for something to say. But the moon simply stared back, not a single word of advice to be heard. Hak sighed and rocked to his feet.

He had to step over dragon wings and climb over Zeno’s tail to reach Yona, but when he sat down on the ground beside her, she looked up, eyes widening, and chirped.

“Everything’s fine, Hime,” Hak drawled, leaning back on his hands and looking up into the forest. “I just wanted to admire the moonlight and—“ he sniffed exaggeratedly “—take in the lovely night air.”

Yona snorted, but slowly relaxed until her side pressed against his. Her scales dug into his ribs, but the edges themselves weren’t sharp, so Hak pressed a little closer.

They sat together just like that, watching over the camp, until the sun rose and the others began to stir.

Hak shifted to stand, his bones cracking after staying still for so long. Yona stopped him. Her head turned into his side, the highest she could reach in her current form, and rubbed once. Ears burning, Hak looked away and stood.

“I’m going hunting,” he muttered. “But I’m here. Anytime. I’ll always be here.”


	5. "hide and go seek" prompt-fill

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Way back in chapter two, queenwcrown requested "The dragons + Ao playing hide and seek with Hak being the seeker (Bonus, Shin-ah and Ao are hard to find)." It's been awhile, but I hope you enjoy what I came up with!

The first time they start, they forget to set boundaries, which leads to Jae-ha blatantly cheating and flying over to the nearest mountain to hide. Zeno would have joined him, but he’s too busy trying not to squish anyone as he rolls over and laughs his head off.

The second time, it goes more smoothly. Yoon announces that no one is to set foot outside of the forest, which keeps all of the dragons nicely contained.

This time, Jae-ha decides to get sneaky. (It’s also, maybe, just a little and certainly not a lot, his older brother instincts wanting to pull one over on Hak.) In any case, Jae-ha notices that his green scales blend in rather well with the undergrowth. Even sunlight reflecting off of them just looks like sunlight reflecting off of dew coated leaves, or something else poetically gorgeous. Jae-ha decides to hide from Hak by following Hak.

It doesn’t go well.

He might blend in well, but he’s still the size of a bear and makes just as much noise. Jae-ha is the second to be found.

The first… well, the first is Zeno. He does his best, but there’s only so much a dragon the size of a hill can do. He rolls in mud, covering himself in it and bugs to hide the gleam of his scales, but Hak isn’t one to miss a hill suddenly appearing when there wasn’t one before.

The third is Kija, brought down once again by his fear of bugs. Unlike Zeno, he refuses to roll in mud because of them, and unlike Jae-ha, his white scales shine like diamonds in the sun. He tries to hide in the treetops, darting from branch to branch, but the shine of his scales still reaches the ground. It isn’t long before Hak spots too much light in the shadows and uses his glaive to knock Kija out of the tree.

Meanwhile, Yona has been attempting to track Hak, similarly to Jae-ha, except she keeps her distance. It works up until she startles a family of birds teaching their young to fly.

The birds are giant hawks.

Needless to say, the hawks pick a fight, and Yona defends herself in a way that is more than sufficient in attracting Hak’s attention. Within a few minutes, the hawks retreat to their nest and Yona stands, wings puffed out in victory, on Jae-ha’s head.

Hak decides to cross back through their camp while looking for Shin-ah, and gives a nod to the boy relaxing on a pile of blankets. Yoon calls back cheerfully.

Hak is almost to the edge of the clearing when he pauses to look back. Had Yoon ever… was Hak imagining it? He walks back slowly, the dragons watching him in confusion, and taps Yoon on the head.

“Caught you,” he says, and Yoon groans as he looks up.

“I was hoping you wouldn’t notice.”

Hak smirks back, and Yoon hops up to join them in their search. The boy had never said he was playing—but then, he had never said he wasn’t, either.

The sun is going down by the time Jae-ha dramatically flops to the ground, rolls onto his back, and flares out his wings.

“I’m dead,” he declares, and in return Kija declares his mourning by bellyflopping on to his brother’s stomach.

“Shin-aaaaaahhhh,” the White Dragon moans, and Yoon coughs a laugh. He might not be able to understand the dragons’ exact words right now, but their body language is clear.

“We can’t give up,” Hak refuses, eyes glaring around them, but Shin-ah doesn’t suddenly appear. Yona squawks and glides on a collision course with Kija’s back. The result is three dragons stacked on top of one another, and Yoon and Hak look at them, then at each other, and finally to Zeno. The Yellow Dragon grins back toothily. He’s too large to join the dragon pile, but Hak has had enough practice climbing Zeno in recent days to make his own pile. A few leaps, a bound, and a quick scramble find the Dark Dragon standing on Zeno’s shoulder holding Shin-ah aloft, Ao dangling from one tiny blue horn.

Shin-ah kicks his hindlegs lazily in the air, but his wings flare out as if to catch the wind, and Hak sounds like he’s being strangled as he quickly brings the dragon into his chest. Yoon scolds them both from below, Hak for dangling Shin-ah in the first place and Shin-ah for threatening to fly when he knows he can only glide, “honestly Shin-ah, what were you thinking!”

But the smaller dragon pile has been reduced to chirps and growling, Jae-ha’s chest—and therefore the entire pile—rumbling with the force of his laughter, and Yoon looks at them, then back to Hak carefully making his way down with Shin-ah safe in his arms, then back to the laughing dragons, and throws his arms up. Yoon collapses into the pile making Jae-ha let out an exaggerated groan, wing raising in his second death throes, and Kija gets revenge for his brother by tossing his own head in Yoon’s lap while Yona nips lazily at his feather.

With Hak safely off of Zeno’s head, the Yellow Dragon is free to curve his neck around to give Jae-ha a hearty nudge in the side. And when Hak reaches the ground, the only thing he can really do is throw himself, Shin-ah, and Ao into the pile.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone! I hope you all enjoyed this, and please comment!
> 
> Just a gentle reminder, I'm on tumblr at queenofmoons67, and my asks are open! (If you want to prompt something for this 'verse, or if you just want to talk about it, or anything else.)
> 
> And for a bit of shameless self-promotion, I participated in both HakYona and AkaYona Ladies Weeks this year! You can find most of my work on my AO3 page, but if you want to check out my werewolf and modern figure skating AUs, those are on tumblr! You can find them in my master list for AkaYona Ladies Week here: https://queenofmoons67.tumblr.com/post/188058499407/my-akayona-ladies-week-2019-master-list

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you all for reading, and I hope you enjoyed! Please comment!
> 
> P.S. I am accepting prompts for future chapters!


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